


Life Drawing

by jmajerus



Category: A Court of Thorns and Roses Series - Sarah J. Maas
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-20
Updated: 2018-09-20
Packaged: 2019-07-14 21:23:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,181
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16048835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jmajerus/pseuds/jmajerus
Summary: After transferring across Prythian to a new campus to escape her abusive ex, Feyre Archeron finds a new life.  But now she needs to face the class that brought out the worst in Tamlin.  Unable to fully separate her anxieties from reality, Feyre causes tension between her and her new boyfriend, Rhysand Night.  A Modern AU - University setting one-shot.  Mild mention of abuse (emotional and physical) and stalker behavior.





	Life Drawing

Feyre Archeron stood before the art building and drew in a shuddering breath.  Normally, she loved entering the one building on campus dedicated to her favorite subject of art, but today marked the start of new classes and with those new classes, Basic Life Drawing.  She would have avoided the class forever, except it was required for her art degree and her advisor had informed her she could put it off no longer. 

It wasn’t as if she was one of the eighteen year olds that came in and couldn’t stand the sight of a naked body without giggling or feeling uncomfortable.  She was perfectly fine drawing the human body in all its glory and perfect imperfections.  No, she wasn’t worried about any of that.  Instead she had put it off until she could no longer do so because she had taken the class once before at another university and it had ended disastrously for her.

When Feyre had been accepted into Prythian University – Spring Campus, she had been ecstatic.  She had been given a full scholarship for her abilities in painting and drawing and she had planned to have a quiet four years spent mostly in the arts building.  But she had met Tamlin Spring, of _the_ Spring family that controlled the campus.  He had walked the campus like he owned it and she had been inclined to avoid him, but he hadn’t been inclined to let her.  After two months of nonstop pestering, she had given in to dating him.

At first it had been pleasant, wonderful even.  He had taken her to fine dining restaurants she never had been able to afford on her own or when she had been supporting her elder sisters or her disabled father.  He had bought her hundreds of gifts of designer clothing and jewelry.  He had bought her a new cellphone.  And there had been roses, hundreds of dozens of roses that had arrived bouquet by bouquet almost daily.

Then things had started to change.  At first it had been little comments about her eating habits being unhealthy until she was on a strict diet.  Then it had been comments on the clothes she wore when she had such wonderful designer clothes waiting to be worn in her closet.  Then it had been on how often she painted or drew with charcoal, such messy things, until she had barely had time to finish class required work and only class required work.  And soon it had been down to who she spent her time with until she had only spent time with him and his friends.  She hadn’t even been able to call her sisters without it causing disapproving glares or a full blown argument.

But Tamlin had let her continue her degree.  It had been the one thing he truly allowed her freedom in because his mother had told him how wonderful it would be to have someone with an eye for art join some of the charities she worked with.  And that had been her one freedom, until it had come to Basic Life Drawing nearly a year into dating Tamlin.

At first, she had been able to hide the fact she was staring at naked models, mostly very comfortable men, one night a week for roughly three hours.  But he had come to pick her up from class early one day and had seen a fairly good looking young man starting to pull his clothes on while the students were finishing up drawings and cleaning up.  He had gone through her sketchbook that night and had spent nearly four hours screaming at her for even looking at another male naked, let alone drawing them, despite it being for class.  He had _forbidden_ her from ever returning to the class.

But Feyre hadn’t been deterred.  The class had been required for her degree and even her advisor hadn’t been able to think of a way around it.   So the next week she had gone, making an excuse to Tamlin that she had switched to a different night class in the art building to fulfill the credit.  For three weeks that excuse had worked. 

Then just over halfway through the semester, she had been partway through drawing a cliché man holding a discus to throw, when she had been yanked rather violently backwards from her drafting stool.  She had been slammed into the wall before she had been able to discern what had even happened and then she had met the livid green eyes of Tamlin.  His hand had been around her throat while another had held her right wrist.  She had heard none of his words as his hand had tightened on her throat, cutting off her air.  And she had never felt the bones in her wrist snap.  Instead she had lost consciousness somewhere between air deprivation and head injury as he had slammed her into the wall again and again.

When she had woken in the hospital nearly a day later, she had found the room completely empty save Tamlin’s lawyer and mother.  They had offered her a settlement then and there but she had refused.  She hadn’t been some weak-willed woman, she had been going to seek charges for assault, especially with so many witnesses.  But the witnesses hadn’t come to her side.  All of them had been bribed or blackmailed off to say she had fainted in class and had hit her head on the drafting table on the way down.

Worse than that, Tamlin hadn’t left her alone.  Between hundreds of calls a day, roses and more roses arriving at her door, and him stalking her between classes, she had developed an anxiety disorder.  He had wanted her back and had been willing to forgive her.  But she hadn’t been willing to and never would forgive him.

Her shattered wrist had kept her from finishing any of her actual art courses that semester, but she had finished her written courses with the help of her sympathetic advisor, Dr. Alis.  Then they had organized a transfer to another campus clear across Prythian: Velaris Campus.

She planned on finishing out her remaining two years at Velaris in relative peace away from Tamlin and the terror he caused but she had drawn the eye of yet another legacy student, Rhysand Night.  His family ran the Velaris Campus with as much notoriety as Tamlin’s had run theirs.  But instead of walking around campus like he did indeed own the place, Rhysand, a Masters student, seemed to actually care about each and every person on the campus and their well-being.  He had claimed that was what had originally brought him to her but he hadn’t been able to stay away, despite her adamancy that she did not want a relationship.

With Rhysand had come his cousin, Morrigan, and his two foster brothers, Azriel and Cassian, and a PhD student named Amren.  And despite her adamancy she hadn’t wanted a relationship, Rhys had become her friend and the others had become her family.  It hadn’t been until a bouquet of roses had appeared at her dorm room door and a subsequent panic attack that Rhys had even learned the entire story of what had gone down at Spring Campus with Tamlin.  The flowers had indeed been from Tamlin and Rhys had only ever exercised his authority in front of her the once, demanding all deliveries to Feyre Archeron wait for his approval first.

Rhys had never told her how many things he had turned away or sent back but Mor had informed her it was nearly twice a week he had been called by her dorm to screen packages or deliveries for her.  And she could count on one hand the number of packages she had received out of those. 

Then Feyre had given in and had started a tentative relationship with Rhys after a quiet night watching movies in his apartment.  The others had bailed on them at the last minute leaving the two of them alone.  It had started innocently enough and had ended with Feyre comfortably asleep on Rhys on the couch for the better part of the night.  They had spoken in the morning between her horrified blushes and the guidelines of their relationship were negotiated. 

Now six months later and a year into her time at Velaris, she was practically living with Rhys.  She visited her dorm room rarely and had most of her essentials in Rhys’ apartment.  She rarely spent the night away from him and she never had had a reason to be afraid of him.  He never raised his voice at her or even tried to make a single decision for her.

Which was why it was silly she had put off this Life Drawing course until her second to last semester.  She would need to take the advanced course during the spring semester to keep on track for graduation.  Already she was half a semester behind thanks to Tamlin shattering her wrist, and she refused to be any further behind.  So she swallowed her pride and marched into the art building to take a spot in her class.

Feyre set herself in the seat furthest from the door, a new habit she had taken up after Tamlin had attacked her from behind.  Now she would always be able to see who walked in the door.

“Oh, I do hope the person they find for tonight isn’t fat,” the girl next to her giggled to her friend.  “Could you imagine having to draw all of those rolls and cellulite?”

Feyre shook her head at the young girl.  If she only expected beautifully sculpted people to volunteer for this course, she would be sadly disappointed.  Velaris Campus was full of people of every shape and size and almost no one would turn down the hundred marks they were offering to model for the course.

“Good evening class and welcome,” the professor started.  “Tonight, we will first discuss the syllabus and then we will dive right into our first work.”  He started to drone on about the requirements of the course, the rules for absences, and make up work.  Then he stepped aside for an older man with more wrinkles and laugh lines than she could even fathom.  The girls next to her were disgusted but Feyre was fascinated.

She drew the entire three hours, focusing on every detail she could see of the man to try and capture his unique beauty.  She was so enraptured she nearly jumped out of her skin in panic when a gentle hand came down on her shoulder.  Immediately her thoughts had gone to Tamlin, but he wouldn’t have been that gentle.  No, it had to be Rhys.  He wouldn’t violently attack her the way Tamlin had but he still wouldn’t want her drawing a naked man so precisely.

“Miss Archeron, am I correct?”  The professor’s voice drew her out of her panic.  She glanced back and saw it was indeed the professor who was touching her shoulder.  As soon as he had her attention, he let his arm drop.  “Please see me after class is over.  If everyone else would start to wrap up their drawings.  Class ends in ten minutes.” 

A new panic overtook her.  She had done something wrong.  Only students who failed somehow or misbehaved were asked to stay after class.  Or worse, somehow Rhys or his father had discovered that she was in this course and had decided it was unfitting for her.  She was going to be removed from the class.  Anger surged at that last thought.  How dare he try and control her?  How dare he just have her removed from the class?  He talked a big game being about choices and now he was taking one away from her that would cost her her degree.  No, Rhys would never do that.  He would talk to her first, and, she reminded herself, he didn’t know she was in this class.  She forced herself to calm down.

Class ended and everyone else packed up.  The model dressed and left, following most of the students out.  Whether he was affected by their comments on his body, she wouldn’t know.  Instead, she was left sitting at her drafting table with her sketchpad out and her charcoal pencils all tucked away, waiting as the professor finished answering a question of a too eager freshman by the door.

“So, Miss Archeron,” the professor came back to her and pulled over a stool.  She flinched slightly at the sound of the metal stool dragging over concrete floors.  “Tell me why you are here.”

Her head snapped up at the words.  She was enrolled in this class, she knew it.  She had checked and rechecked her schedule nearly four times that day alone, probably another thirty during the week.  She always did on the first week of classes, just to make sure she wasn’t forgetting a course or wasn’t accidentally in the wrong place.  Unless she wasn’t enrolled anymore.  Unless Rhys had indeed removed her from the course without speaking to her about it.

“Excuse me?  I don’t think I understand the question,” she swallowed hard trying to keep her anxiety in check.

“In this class, Miss Archeron.  Why are you enrolled in Basic Life Drawing?  I usually only see freshman or the odd sophomore or two in this course, not someone who should be a senior.”  He pressed.

So, she was still enrolled.  That was a relief.  “Because it’s a required course for my degree,” she reminded him.

“Be that as it may, I think you are too advanced for this particular course.  So, that begs the question: why are you here?”  The professor leaned in a little closer and flicked open her sketchpad to start flipping through her drawings.  She had kept her old sketchpad from the Spring Campus course and had decided that morning to save money by simply adding to that one instead of buying a new sketchpad.

 “It’s required, and I put it off too long,” Feyre murmured. 

“You didn’t seek advanced placement, why?”  The professor pushed.

“I wasn’t aware there was an advanced placement option,” she blushed.  She was already needing to take an extra semester.  She hadn’t looked into somehow opting out of a course.  In fact, her advisor hadn’t mentioned it either.  Beyond that, she recalled Dr. Alis telling her there was no way around the course.  “My advisor said there was no way around this course.”

“Ah, well, we don’t usually offer opting out of courses to anyone.  Almost everyone could use a basics course despite skill level.  But I feel your skills are more on par with my advanced course.  I teach one on Monday nights, but another professor offers one on Wednesdays if you can’t accommodate Mondays.” 

They spoke for another fifteen minutes about her level of work and how to go about getting advanced placement.  The professor, himself, would petition for the change within the department.  It could take a week or two, but he was fine if she decided to just pop by his advanced class before the change took place in the system.

Feyre walked home feeling light and happy.  If everything went well, she would get credit for the Life Drawing course based on her previous drawings and she would get placement in the advanced course, taking one more off her extra semester load.  She nearly bounced the whole way to Rhys’ apartment, bypassing her own dorm.  She wanted to tell him the good news and she figured he probably deserved to know what was required of her in these courses.

But Rhys wasn’t alone when she got to his apartment.  All their friends were there, eating pizza and watching some show together on the television.  Feyre let her art bag drop by the side of the couch and took up a seat next to Rhys, who simply pulled her in tight against him before offering her a slice of pizza.

“Night classes ended nearly forty-five minutes ago and it only takes you fifteen minutes to walk here,” Cassian called over his shoulder.  “Any later and we would have sent out a search party.”

“I had to stay after to speak with a professor,” Feyre explained.  Rhys could be protective, but usually Cassian or Azriel beat him to the punch.  Never were they overbearing about it though.  It was always just enough to show concern for her safety and nothing more.

“Everything alright?”  Rhys asked, nuzzling her.

“He wants me to change classes to a different section of the course.  Nothing crazy,” she assured her boyfriend.

“Why single you out to change courses?”  Cassian turned to look at her.  “Problems with the professor?  Another classmate?  Someone I should be speaking to?”

“No,” Feyre sighed.  “He just thought my work was above beginner level and I should be in an advanced course.”  She blushed at the self praise even if it hadn’t come from her.

“Well, you are far better than a beginner,” Rhys reminded her.

“Oh!  Let’s see this above average work!”  Mor made to steal her art bag but Cassian was there first as Feyre tried to snatch it back.

“No, wait!”  Feyre begged but they had her sketchpad out.  She had wanted to talk to Rhys carefully.  But now…

“Feyre!  Why are you drawing naked men?”  Cassian all but shrieked.  She felt Rhys jerk beside her and her cheeks flushed.  “Oh Cauldron!  It burns my eyes!”

“You see naked men at the gym all the time,” Azriel chided.  “Life Drawing?”  He turned to Feyre.  “That’s a requirement of your degree, is it not?”

Feyre could only bring herself to nod as Cassian blatantly flipped through the sketches where she knew Rhys could very well see.  Some did have very detailed drawings of their groin. 

“If classes just started tonight, why are there like… 20 drawings of naked people in here?”  Cassian demanded.  Feyre almost answered but Amren cut across all of them.

“If you don’t shut up and listen to the show, I’ll hide your body where no one will ever find it,” she snapped.  Mouths closed, and no more talking was done as every last one of them believed Amren could and would actually commit murder and would more than likely get away with it.

Next to her, Feyre could feel how stiff Rhys was.  She could feel the tenseness in every line of his body.  Her heart started to race faster.  Tamlin had been like that.  If his friends were about, he’d hold in his anger until it blew up later when they were alone.

For two hours she sat between a tense Rhys and their friends, waiting for the moment they would leave and she would be left alone with whatever anger Rhys had never shown her.  For two hours she felt her anxiety starting to peak and she would almost flinch whenever Rhys would shift even slightly.

Then their friends bid them goodnight, along with several more jabs from Cassian about the drawings in her sketchpad.  Feyre almost cursed him.  If there was a remote chance Rhys had forgotten, his brother had reminded him.

Then they were alone and Rhys went to lock the door behind his family.  Feyre sat frozen on the couch, waiting.  There would be no escaping whatever anger he had, not immediately.  He was between her and the door and Rhys was fast.  She could leave after.  She did have her own dorm room to go to when things got bad.

But Rhys didn’t start talking.  Instead he went to where her sketch pad sat and opened it up to look through it himself.  After he looked through all of the drawings he brought the sketch pad over and sat with her once more.  She heard him draw in a breath and flinched involuntarily as she waited for the storm to break.

“Are you alright?  I know you were putting this class off because of what happened in Spring,” his hand came down on her knee and she flinched again.  But he wasn’t doing more than resting his hand there.  Tamlin would have been squeezing, a show of possession rather than the comfort Rhys seemed to be offering.  “And you’ve been abnormally quiet tonight.”

“I just,” Feyre swallowed hard.  Her voice was meek and small, the same voice Tamlin had forced on her.  “I wanted to be able to explain things to you a little more… gently.  I didn’t want you to be angry with me.  Most of the volunteers for these classes are men and almost all of them pose naked.”

“I’m not him, Feyre,” Rhys sighed after a long minute.  His hand left her knee and he stood.  “I had hoped you would see that by now.”  Then Rhys was gone, walking away from her and Feyre felt shame creeping up her spine.

Deep down she did know that Rhys was not Tamlin.  He had never been like Tamlin.  He was protective but not overbearing.  He never took decisions from her, not even something as small as ordering a pizza without asking her what she wanted on it though he knew her favorites from every restaurant in Velaris.  He wasn’t even making her give up her dorm room though they both knew it was impractical for her to have it when she rarely returned there anymore.

The shame she now was worse than if Rhys had blown up at her.  She wished he had just yelled at her.  Anger was something she could deal with but this disappointment that she hadn’t known better of him.  And he had just walked away and was now behind the closed bedroom door, a sign he wanted to be alone.  A sign that he was disgusted enough with her anxieties that he had shut her out, literally. 

Not wanting to force her presence on him anymore.  She put her sketchbook back in her bag and made for the door.  She paused for just one moment thinking she had heard Rhys’ bedroom door open, but when she glanced back, it was still closed, and worse, the light was gone from under the door.  He was going to bed without her.  That hurt her more than she knew it should have.  When they were together, they never went to bed without the other, except for now it seemed.  Except for when he was disappointed in her.

Tears prickled in her eyes as she left the apartment, locking the door behind her, and made her way back towards her dorm.  She rarely needed her dorm keys to come in after hours so she fumbled with them before entering the florescent lit lobby to present her ID to the night staff to prove she lived there.  Then she was alone in her dorm room and she set her phone down on the nightstand hoping for some message from Rhys.  Anything to indicate he wasn’t that mad, but there was nothing.  Trying to mend whatever she had broken, she texted Rhys a small ‘I’m sorry’ and then she waited.

It took far too long to fall asleep.  She kept reaching across the bed for the comfort of Rhys only to find she was in her twin bed alone.  And what few hours of sleep she had gotten weren’t nearly enough as her alarm went off bright and early for classes.  She dragged herself from bed and glanced at her phone to see no notifications.  No messages from Rhys though he was normally up at dawn for a run with his brothers.  No response to her apology. 

It didn’t take long for her day to go from bad to worse.  After her first two classes she realized she still hadn’t received any messages.  Normally she had heard from Mor or Cassian by now demanding she join them for lunch.  She normally had at least five messages from Rhys.  Instead, her phone was silent.  Proof what she had done was unforgiveable.  Rhys had likely told the others what she had thought of him and they were likely mad at her too, disappointed in her too.  Tamlin had been able to tear her down and make her feel low, but not nearly as low as she felt now.  She should have stuck to her guns about not wanting a relationship because this loneliness and pain were too much.

“Miss Archeron,” the desk attendant in her dorm called as she walked in, fully intent on skipping her next class and burying herself in bed.  “You have a delivery.”

Because Rhys had been shielding her for so long, Feyre wasn’t prepared as the vase of roses and a package were handed to her.  She wasn’t prepared to realize that Rhys hadn’t screened this delivery.  He had been called and hadn’t care to come.  She took them, not wanting to break down in front of the people in the lobby.

She set the roses on her desk and opened the package to find letters, tied together and dated, and a pair of emerald earrings that likely cost more than her tuition.  And because she was already hurting, Feyre opened the first letter sure that whatever Tamlin had to say to her couldn’t make her feel any worse than she already felt.

 Her afternoon class passed as she sat on the floor reading those letters and then dinner.  And the sky got dark as she took in every cutting remark that Tamlin had thrown her way.  And when she reached the last letter, the most recent letter, she curled into bed realizing that the words Rhys had said the night before had been more cutting than anything Tamlin could ever say to her.  She should have known better, she did know better, and yet she had treated him like he was Tamlin.  She didn’t deserve him and he likely knew that now which is why he hadn’t bothered trying to talk to her all day, why his family hadn’t bothered trying to talk to her all day.

Feyre didn’t crawl out of bed all of Friday and barely left it all weekend.  She simply laid there, staring at the phone on her night stand that didn’t beep or light up with incoming messages.  Nothing to indicate she was missed and she didn’t expect to be missed.

But by Monday she made herself get up.  She couldn’t afford to miss more class even if she didn’t feel like going.  She even made herself attend the advanced life drawing course that night, if only because she didn’t want to be behind and she wanted to prove to the professor she deserved the advanced placement.  But since she hadn’t been there for the first class, the seat furthest from the door had already been claimed.  The only seat left was the one right next to the door, with her back to it.  And despite that flashes of memory and the terror she felt sitting there, she took the place and drew.

“Miss Archeron,” the professor rounded on her at the end of class.  “I was quite right about your work.  I’m hoping to hear back about the advanced placement within the next few days.”

She could barely murmur a ‘thank you’ before she packed up her things and made for the door and then stopped.  She knew the person leaning against the wall on the other side of the door even if he wasn’t looking at her.  She knew his dark hair, the shape of his body, and that black leather jacket.  So when Azriel fell into step with her as she tried to walk by him, she didn’t flinch.

“You’re not enrolled in this class,” Azriel broke the silence as they stepped outside.

“Not yet,” she replied, her voice too quiet.  “Did you need something?”  She knew he did.  While Mor or Cassian would randomly appear because they felt like it, Azriel and Amren only appeared when there was a reason.  Part of her was sure Rhys had sent him to ask for the key to his apartment back and she braced herself to hear it.

“You haven’t been around the last few days,” Azriel’s voice was equally quiet.  “We’ve been worried.”

“I thought Rhys would have told you.”  Her stomach felt leaden as she thought she would have to tell Azriel what had happened.  He was fiercely protective of his brother. 

“He did,” was the simply reply.  Azriel was never one to waste words.

“Then why are you here?”  She stopped walking to face him.  “Shouldn’t you be with your brother?” 

Azriel’s hazel eyes swept over her face in the dark and then he looked down both sides of the sidewalk.  She followed his gaze to see the sidewalks were empty.  Then he surged forward and she flinched as his arms went around her.  It took her a moment to realize he was hugging her.  He pulled back after a few more seconds and opened his mouth to say something but was cut off as his phone started to ring.  He answered it and his piercing gaze stayed on her as he informed whoever was on the phone that she had been found.

“We’re on our way,” Azriel said finally.  Then he hung up his phone, pocketed it, and threw an arm around Feyre’s shoulders.

“Where are we going?”  She asked as he steered her down the street.  She had a sinking feeling she knew, especially when he didn’t answer her question.  And she was proven right as he steered her past her dorm and further down the street until they stopped outside of Rhys’ apartment building.

“Wait, Az,” she stopped him as he opened the front door.  “He doesn’t want to see me.”  If he wanted to see her, he would have come himself or he would have at least sent her a message.

“You’re wrong,” Azriel told her, his voice becoming gentle.  “Come.”  His arm went back around her shoulders and he steered her up the stairs and down the hall to a door she knew far too well.  He didn’t bother with a key, telling her that Rhys was home and expecting company.  Then the door opened and Feyre saw Cassian and Mor first, both turning to look at her.  Amren was nowhere to be seen but she never came around on nights she had classes and Mondays were her usual night classes.  Azriel pushed her further into the apartment as both Cassian and Mor rose from their seats.  But they didn’t come to her.  Instead they passed her, Mor reaching out to squeeze her hand and Cassian giving her an awkward hug before they left with Azriel.  And all at once, she was alone in Rhys’ apartment with him though he wasn’t in the living room.

She almost left right then and there.  Rhys didn’t want to see her and she understood.  Comparing someone as wonderful as him to Tamlin was unforgiveable.  So she turned to go to the door.

“Feyre?”  She froze at that voice.  She glanced back to see Rhys coming out of the kitchen, an apron around his waist and a wooden spoon in his hand.  He had been cooking dinner, likely for the family that had just left.  That she wouldn’t have put it past to orchestrate this whole thing.

“I’m sorry.  I don’t know why I let Azriel bring me here,” she blushed.  “I’ll get out of your hair.”  She went back to the door.

“No, wait!”  Rhys called after her and she stopped and braced herself.  This was the moment he would ask for his key back.  Likely he had her things already packed up for her to take back to her dorm room.  But suddenly she was spun around and crushed against him.  His strong arms moving firmly around her back drawing her in to his chest and sea and citrus scent.  “I’m sorry.  I shouldn’t have gotten mad.  I know you don’t think that way about me.  I just wasn’t prepared.  I thought you’d tell me when you enrolled for that class so we could work through it together and I wasn’t prepared.  I’ve been hoping you’d come through that door every day so I could apologize properly, so you’d let me apologize properly.  I went by your dorm earlier to ask you to come over for dinner but you weren’t in and no one knew where you were.”

“Why didn’t you respond to my message the other night?”  Feyre asked.  If he had wanted her to come to him then why hadn’t he told her so?  “Why didn’t you just text me or call me?”

“What do you mean?  Feyre, Darling, I’ve been messaging and calling you nonstop for days.  Everyone has.  Well, not Amren, but everyone else,” Rhys pulled back to look her over.  “I haven’t gotten any messages from you.  No one has.  That’s why everyone went out looking for you tonight after I discovered you weren’t in your dorm.”

She believed him.  Rhys had no reason to lie.  But she pulled out her phone to show him that the last messages she had received were from Wednesday the week before and her call log was also equally empty.

Without hesitating, Rhys handed her his phone so she could indeed see he had been messaging her apology after apology starting from twenty minutes after she had left his apartment begging her to come back.  Though she believed him, she also checked his call log to see he had called her probably twenty times in the last few days.  Four that day alone.

“I’ll have Az look at your phone tomorrow to see why it’s not sending or receiving anything.”  Rhys sighed as he handed her phone back to her.

“I know you aren’t like Tamlin,” she told him when his arms settled back around her.  “I’m ashamed that I let my fears get the better of me.”  Even if he wasn’t mad, he needed to hear it.

“Never be ashamed of yourself, Feyre,” Rhys told her firmly and kissed her brow.  Then he stepped back, took her hand to drag her into the kitchen.  “I’m made your favorite in case you might possibly show up tonight,” he nodded to the chicken curry on the stovetop.  He filled up a bowl for her and then led her to the couch where they could sit side by side and eat.

“How were your classes today?”  And just like that it was almost as if they had never fought, except for Rhys finding every moment to stop and touch her or give her small kisses.

“Did you hear back about your advanced placement?”  Rhys asked when dinner was gone and he was pulling her towards the bedroom.

“Sometime this week, hopefully,” Feyre yawned when he abandoned her for the bathroom to start his before bed routine.  She laid back on the bed to wait for him.  The last few days had been exhausting and now that she and Rhys were on better terms again, she just wanted to get some real sleep.  She closed her eyes for just a moment waiting for Rhys to respond.

The next thing she knew, Rhys was helping her into a sitting position to pull off her clothes and was hauling her back under the covers.  His warmth settled around her.

“I missed this,” he whispered in her ear.

“Me too,” she breathed out.  Then in the state between sleep and awake, several thoughts wriggled into her mind.  “I read the letters that Tamlin sent in that package with the flowers on Thursday.”

She felt Rhys draw back to look at her.  “You got a package and flowers on Thursday?  I wonder why I wasn’t called to clear them.”  Then he settled back against her.  At least that told her why he would even allow them through.  He hadn’t been told.  “Are you alright?”

“I am now,” she assured him.  “He sent me earrings that I’ll need to send back.”

“We’ll take care of it tomorrow when your classes are done,” he told her.  Then he began to stroke his hand up and down her back in long, languid strokes meant to soothe her to sleep.

“Rhys?”  She nuzzled in against him as she decided to reveal her other thought.  “I think I want to give up my dorm.”  The hand on her back stilled and then started moving once more.

“Just to make sure, Darling, you are deciding to move in with me?”  He asked softly.

“Well, if you don’t take me in then I will be homeless if I give up my dorm,” she told him.

“Shut up and kiss me, Smart Ass,” Rhys told her.  He tilted her face up and practically devoured her with his kiss.

“So, you’re okay with that?”  She asked when he finally let her up for air.  The quip earned her another round of fiery kisses that led to far more passionate activities before they finally settled back in to sleep with plans of moving her few belongings left in her dorm the next day.

**Author's Note:**

> A while ago I was asked by a reader to write some angsty fluff and started work on this piece. I ended up writing several versions, one of which where Cassian was the nude model and gloated horribly. Turns out I have a very hard time making Rhys and Feyre fight even for a short period of time. Hope you enjoyed the story. I welcome all comments and kudos.


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